That was when he discerned the sound of helicopters drawing close.
“Isn’t that your place?” Tisiphone asked warily.
Morgan swore. One of the local channels was transmitting live from outside the apartment block. He snatched the remote from Cassius’s slack grip and turned the volume up.
“The world is waking up to the incredible news that a group of Goddesses arrived on Earth in the last twenty-four hours to curb a devastating plague that has been ravaging the Southern Hemisphere of our planet, and to save our city from the nameless threat that caused our officials to raise the alarm of a possible terrorist attack yesterday morning,” the female news anchor was saying where she stood amidst a huge crowd outside the glass facade of the foyer.
Her cheeks flushed with excitement as she continued. “We now know why we lost communication with several countries south of the Equator this past week and what the governments of the world have desperately been trying to hide from us so as not to incur global panic. It is only this morning that we began to learn of the deadly contagion that has ripped through large sections of populated territories in South America, Africa, and Asia, sparing no man or creature or even building it has touched. Coming up next are witness accounts from San Francisco citizens who saw the tidal wave that sprang up in the middle of the ocean some twenty hours ago and spied several fast-moving figures in the sky. This was shortly after city officials warned us to get underground. Chief among those spotted was Cassius Black, the fallen angel turned hero who we now know has secretly saved the world innumerable times before. We are bringing you this report directly outside the address where the Goddesses and Cassius Black are suspected to be—”
Morgan’s phone rang. He muted the TV and answered the call.
His face tightened. “How did you get this number?!”
He disconnected, a muscle jumping in his jawline.
Orena grimaced. “Humans sure are nosy, huh?”
Morgan’s cell rang again. The demigod scowled and stabbed the screen with a finger.
“Look, dipshit!” he snarled into the speaker, “I don’t know who you—” He froze and swallowed the rest of his tirade, his expression turning chagrined. “Oh. Sorry, Francis.” He met Cassius’s worried stare before narrowing his eyes at the TV. “Yeah, we’re watching it right now.”
“So, this is what it feels like to be in a zoo,” Kes remarked.
The Goddess looked more curious than anything. Loki stared unblinkingly at the TV screen where he sat next to her elbow, his tail straight.
Cassius’s cell vibrated in his back pocket. He took it out and looked at the screen warily. Relief darted through him.
It was Adrianne.
“We can’t get into your building,” the sorceress said in a frustrated voice when Cassius answered.
He stared at the TV. “Wait. You’re outside right now?!”
“Yeah. What the hell is going on, Cassius?!”
Cassius’s fingers clenched on the phone. “It looks like someone leaked information to the media about Atropos and the others despite every agency banning its operatives from talking to the press. Morgan’s on the phone to Francis right now.”
Zach’s voice came from somewhere close to Adrianne. “Man, social media is on fire with this stuff. Someone even recorded yesterday’s fight.”
“That looks pretty epic,” Bailey said brightly within earshot.
Morgan ended his call with Strickland. “Francis wants us to lie low for a while.”
Atropos drummed her fingers on the breakfast bar. “That might be a problem.”
Cassius’s stomach clenched when he clocked her faint frown. Movement outside distracted him. He almost dropped his phone.
An annoyed-looking Theo was alighting on the terrace with Victor, wings and all. Eden rose from beyond the parapet inside a crimson sphere and landed beside them like she was out for a casual morning stroll.
The mage narrowed her eyes at the helicopters closing in on the building before exchanging words with Theo. Theo nodded.
“Was that Eden we just saw up there?” Adrianne said suspiciously in Cassius’s ear.
“Wait. Don’t tell me they’re gonna—” he half mumbled to himself.
Theo and Eden raised a translucent, gold and crimson barrier around the apartment block without batting an eyelid. Victor looked on with the resigned expression of a man who knew when he was fighting a losing battle.
Kes chuckled. Cassius followed the amused Goddess’s gaze to the TV.